


Fighter

by Itchsh_y



Series: SacredTreasure [2]
Category: The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: Angst, Crying, Darkness, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, SacredTreasure, ZokShod, comfort seems like the wrong word to use, i guess, like seriously im really bad at tagging, no beta we die like the Gelfling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:36:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27644239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Itchsh_y/pseuds/Itchsh_y
Summary: Late into the night, SkekZok stays up to edit some of his ritual scripts. On his way to his sleeping chamber, something catches his eye. When he goes to investigate, he is dragged into one of the few situations he 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 know how to handle.
Relationships: skekZok/skekShod (Dark Crystal)
Series: SacredTreasure [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926913
Kudos: 4





	Fighter

**Author's Note:**

> It has been a while since I posted here, so sorry about that.  
> This fanfic is part two of my SacredTreasure series. It's not totally necessary, but I recommend reading the first part of the series, "What Are We Doing?", before you read this.
> 
> Listen to this while reading this fic, it'll help I'm tellin' ya:  
> youtube.com/watch?v=xb-fzTirUD0

It was a very late hour in the night for the Castle of the Crystal. The Skeksis that reside there had already finished up their duties for the day and had escaped into their sleeping quarters to sleep out the waiting time for the morning to come. Not everyone was asleep, though. And not everyone was stuck in their quarters.

SkekZok stayed up late, sitting in the library and sifting over ritual scripts he made. He was changing some of them up, seeing if it were possible to have a second Skeksis take part in some speaking bits along with the main speaker.

He wanted to include someone else in a few of his rituals. Someone who had plagued his mind so badly that just a couple nights ago, he had spilled his heart out to them in a drunken state of mind.

Yet, what he told SkekShod that night was the truth, even if he was intoxicated. SkekZok wanted to include him in some of his rituals to try and show him he meant it.

"No." SkekZok muttered to himself, rolling up a scroll he was reading. '𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬.' He thought to himself. He sighed, gazing at the scrolls that laid out in front of him. His idea wasn't good enough for him. It was a late hour anyways, he could just go to sleep and wake up with a new one.

He rolled up the scrolls spread out in front of him and put them in their respective places in only few of the many shelves that filled the library, disappointingly.

The hallways were eerily quiet when SkekZok walked them to get to his sleeping chamber, a few of the hallways being the same ones he and SkekShod drunkenly walked through a couple of nights ago.

He passed a corridor of sleeping chambers, filled with semi-recently emptied or currently occupied rooms. But when he looked down it, he saw one of the doors to a chamber slightly ajar. '𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳?' He thought and inferred.

But it wasn't just someone's, he recognized who's door that was.

It was SkekShod's.

The Ritual-Master hesitated to inspect, normally he wouldn't care and just brush it off. '𝘐𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮.' He agreed to his plan.

Silently, he walked into the corridor, not knowing what to expect out of this simple task.

He approached SkekShod's door, and the silence lingering around SkekZok quickly was only slightly overcome by the ugly sound of '𝘚𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨?'

SkekZok broke away from his own plan and opened the door, peeking his head in. He could just barely make out the form of SkekShod in his nightly clothes, sitting on his bed with one hand on his face, and the other holding some sort of object.

"SkekShod?" SkekZok quietly said, opening the door up to reveal himself and the Treasurer. SkekShod gasped, lowering his head and looking at the Ritual-Master. He looked at him with a kind of helplessness that he resembled a diseased animal looking at a passer-by.

"N-no." He muttered. He quickly tucked the object he was holding under the blankets of his bed, like it was embarrassing to even have, whatever that object was. "Plllease- please go." He said quietly, looking down while holding back tears.

SkekZok shook his head. He looked at the embarrassed Treasurer with... worry. His heart started noticeably pounding faster as he walked into the dark room, closing the door behind him.

He could no longer see, but he walked forward slowly until he ran into SkekShod's bed. He could hear the Treasurer shift in his spot as he came across the bed.

SkekShod's weeping had died down faintly as SkekZok hoisted himself up onto the bed, sitting to the left of him quietly.

The Ritual-Master stayed silent and still in the pitch-black of the room, giving the Treasurer time to gather himself and speak up. Yet, SkekShod's crying, which reason was sill unknown, became worse. He had lowered the upper half of his body so his head was almost touching his legs, seemingly folding himself in half. He held his brow with his left hand, while the right searched the blanket for the object he had hid.

He grazed his hand over a hard lump in the blankets, reaching under and grabbing the object. But he didn't take it out.

It was far too clear to SkekZok that the Treasurer wasn't going to be ready to speak up any time soon. He seemed far too busy sobbing, it was an ugly and saddening sound for SkekZok, he wanted to get rid of it. But how? He was never the one to comfort, as with the rest of the Skeksis.

He thought of things that could possibly provide the emotional support needed in this situation, hoping something wasn't so 'lovey-dovey' and 'gushy' as he's heard before from Gelfling. Nothing along those disgusting lines.

The Ritual-Master wanted to say something, but he had to watch what he said. He didn't want to push SkekShod into saying something, he wanted it to come naturally and not stress him out any further. He was probably already stressing him by just being there.

Blindly, he quickly took the Treasurer's hand that was on his face as he heard his repulsive cries strengthen again.

SkekShod sat up, worthlessly looking at his hand being held by the Ritual-Master's- as it was completely dark. He could feel the waterfalls running down his face calm slightly, but his cries were still very obvious by his audible weeping. His sobbing continued with unsteady breaths, trying to catch as much air as possible. He seemed so helpless.

"Do you want me to leave?" SkekZok quietly asked, looking next to him.

SkekShod squeezed SkekZok's hand with his. "No-no." He whimpered between sobs. "Iii- I am sssorry. I am sorry." His voice became frantic. "Please-please do not lea-leave. I am sorry. Please do not leave." The phrases kept getting repeated, like the Treasurer was pleading to the Ritual-Master. He kept helplessly hyperventilating, his wallows turned into frantic words.

"No, no, I am not going to leave. I am staying right here." SkekZok nervously said. He had never seen a Skeksis so sad and frantic at the same time, it was an unsavory mixture.

SkekShod leaned his body against SkekZok's, burying his face in his golden robes, immediately staining them with tears. "Please do not leave." He muffled pathetically. His pleads had died down. "I am sorry."

"Do not apologize. Apologies are a sign of weakness, Treasurer." SkekZok calmly said, letting go of SkekShod's hand so he could wrap his arm around him.

"I-I have alllready cr-cried in-in-in front of you. What difference doesss it-it make?" The Treasurer muttered as his uneasy breathing started to steady out. His voice was distorted from crying, and already muffled. He was barely understandable.

"What do you have to apologize about, though?" SkekZok questioned. He leaned back a bit to get more comfortable.

Silence stuck around the two, only being broken every once in a while by SkekShod trying to catch his breath. He hesitated to answer the question, even though he already knew it's answer. He was just afraid that it might hurt SkekZok the same way it had already hurt him.

The Treasurer took the object he was holding out from under the blankets. He searched with his free hand, finding and holding onto SkekZok's left hand. He brought it over to him and placed the object he was holding into it. He still had his face buried in the Ritual-Master's robes.

SkekZok felt the object in his hand, almost immediately recognizing it.

"I gave this to you." He said. It was the dark green gemstone he had given SkekShod some time ago. It was a significant item between the two, one that helped each of them realize how important the other one was to them.

SkekZok realized what the answer was going to be about.

"I-I do not underssstand how-how-" SkekShod started, only to be stopped by reoccurring tears. He raised his head out of the Ritual-Master's robes. "I am not worthy. I-I do nnnot underssstand how-how I ammm. The-the thing we ha-have between usss is-is risking our rrights." He finally answered.

"You think you are not worth the risk-- Treasurer..." SkekZok said in realization. He handed the green gemstone back to SkekShod.

"We-we could get in ssso mu-much trouble, us-us Skeksis are at wa-warrrr. The lllast thi-thing we need is-is a distraction, es-especially of this nature." SkekShod explained, tripping on his words frequently.

SkekZok sighed. "Why do you think that I came over here, Treasurer? Why do you think I stayed when you tried to push me away?" He asked rhetorically, moving his arm from around SkekShod back to his side.

The Treasurer's cries were gone, but his misshapen cheeks were still stained with dried tears. Snot leaked out from the nostrils on each side of his beak. He wiped it away with a sleeve from his night outfit.

"I-I am horrible, cursed, repulsive. I was pu-put in my place lllong ago, and-and look what that has-has done to mme." SkekShod said somberly, pointing out his flawed speech and horrible reputation. He sat up so his body no longer leaned up against the Ritual-Master.

"Are you trying to make me lose interest in who you are? Your speech has no affect on me, and what ever happened long ago is way in the past. Do not let it control how you think of yourself." SkekZok tried to reassure the Treasurer.

"It-it already haa-hassss." SkekShod admitted, letting his posture become droopy.

"Then I will not let it happen again." SkekZok spoke up, making the Treasurer sit back up in his normal posture. "You see, that is the thing. You mean such a large amount to me that I am willing to help. I have gone out of my way to insure that you were alright." He firmly said, blindly putting his hand onto SkekShod's shoulder, who's breath hitched at the Ritual-Master's words.

The silence between the two came back. It was the Treasurer's turn to speak, but all he did was think empty thoughts. He wished that his room wasn't overcome by darkness so that he could look into SkekZok's blue eyes with awe, and be amazed that the Ritual-Master had gotten into the mindset to not only accept, but embrace who he was.

SkekZok unlocked the piece of SkekShod's mind that had never been opened before. Love. The term disgusted him. He was never meant to feel it, so it obviously felt wrong to acknowledge that he was. But, it made him happy, he had never been this happy before, excluding the guilt.

SkekShod scooted up against SkekZok's side, getting comfortable in his close presence.

"I know your worth, SkekShod. And it is far more that just a simple gemstone." SkekZok stated calmly. It appeared obvious that it was not just the Treasurer who had feelings they shouldn't have.

SkekShod fidgeted with the gemstone in his hands, then placing it on the blankets next to him. "The-then what is my worth?" He asked, taking SkekZok's right arm and holding it close.

"My rights. My freedoms. My job and title. The amount of respect I have earned, and my reputation. I am risking all of those, just so I can remain happy with you, and there is no need to be guilty about it. This is at my own will and yours. It will not be your fault if I get my comeuppance. It will be mine, and vice versa." SkekZok said. His long statement was understandable.

"You cannot imagine how much more you are worthy of and what I would give for you, Treasurer."

SkekShod smiled, nuzzling his beak on SkekZok's neck. "SkekZok, I-I..." He tried to speak. The Ritual-Master's words gave him the courage to at least try and say what he wanted to, even though he still failed.

"And I, you." SkekZok admitted in response. It was a foolish thing to admit, but it was the truth. He knew what the Treasurer was trying to say, he knew it too well.

The Ritual-Master took the bottom of SkekShod's head into his hand, lifting it so that the Treasurer looked at him. He turned his head so that he could blindly be face-to-face with SkekShod. He leaned in so the end of his beakless snout touched the tip of the Treasurer's beak.

"Thank you." SkekShod whispered. He nuzzled his beak on SkekZok's snout. The two pressed their heads together, feeling the flowing emotions rushing between them. They silently breathed as they sat, enjoying the warm presence the other gave. It helped them forget their troubles, and only remember the importance of each other.

The Ritual-Master was the first to pull himself away from the other's embrace. As much as he wanted to stay, he had to get to his own sleeping chamber to get rest. He got up from SkekShod's bed and headed for the door slowly, as he was still in the dark.

He opened the door as he gently ran into it. The two were now visible again, they took advantage of the light to look at each other clearly from afar. The spark between them stayed strong.

SkekZok backed up to be completely out of SkekShod's room. "You're a fighter, Treasurer." He spoke. The Treasurer smiled, giving a small nod. SkekZok closed the door as he left, leaving SkekShod in the darkness of his room, only to ponder.

It seemed that the Ritual-Master had succeeded in showing the Treasurer that what he had said a couple of nights ago was the truth.

And SkekShod was excited to embrace it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading to the end. You didn't have to, so I appreciate it.
> 
> (I've got art of this now :D https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugz6wM6xXQ4ZWYWPOKx4AaABCQ)


End file.
